Know yourself, your strengths, your passion and invest in its growth.
I spent my Tuesday evening in Singapore jumping out of my seat doing vocal and stretching exercises with Deborah Torres Patel at her Master Class on mastering voice craft and stagecraft as a professional speaker. Having shared the stage with Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Jack Canfield, Oprah Winfrey and Tony Blair, she was generous to share with us the story of her success and her winning formula. We were all honoured by her brilliance and inspiration and grateful for her share.
One top take away was to ALWAYS INVEST IN YOURSELF. Deborah has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars preparing to be the best at what she does from sales coaching on how to sell herself to an image consultant on how to look good on stage. Even with natural born talent, it takes additional investment in ourselves to go from Good to Great. We see and hear about the big salaries, shiny titles, accomplishments and buzz around top performing world celebrities and professionals. What we don’t see or hear about as often is the individual course work, the one-on-one coaching sessions, the time and money spent on getting there.
To get real good in your niche, become the best at what you do by being prepared and ready before those opportunities come and by investing in your own education. We are all accountable for our own success. It requires a personal commitment to manage and invest in areas that are aligned with our passionate pursuits and ultimate career ambitions. If you don’t know what your career ambitions or goals are, or feel stuck in your current position, seek out help. It sometimes can take just one valuable face to face conversation or meeting with the right person to get realigned and have clarity again. It takes serious thought, time and strategic planning to figure out what’s right for you and can sometimes be quite overwhelming. However, be careful when you speak to advisors or mentors as they often tend to tell you what’s worked for them and are naturally biased towards their own choices. As a result, I’ve seen too many people waste time and money on making career decisions based off of other people’s passions and career ambitions rather than their own. People would love you to be just like them and it leads to fatal career decisions resulting in you becoming dissatisfied or unfulfilled towards your career track because it just doesn’t feel right.
We all have different strengths, values, skill sets and personalities. Capitalize on your own identity and you might just find yourself happier living your own life rather than chasing someone else’s. Take time to discover your niche and passion and invest in your Identity. Once you’ve found your sweet spot, there is no turning back.